GP2 Austria: Rio Haryanto wins the sprint race

Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne won the feature race yesterday, but Sunday’s sprint race was dominated by Rio Haryanto who has shown fantastic defending skills throughout the whole race. The race started 10:35 with Nick Yelloly on pole and the formation lap was completed without any issues and the race started chaotically with Alex Lynn stalling, followed by numerous locks and light contacts which forced Yelloly to the pits and out of the race. Rio Haryanto emerged as the leader in front of Artem Markelov, Stoffel Vandoorne and Nobuharu Matsushita. In the meantime, Julian Leal was penalized for an illegal pit entry.

We couldn't find the way to pass @haryantorio today. Congrats @CamposRacing for this great race! We'll be back in SIlverstone! 😉

Halfway into the race, Haryanto was still in the lead with 0.5s advantage over Markelov. The Russian made an opportunistic move which backfired badly when he slid off track, leaving Vandoorne to take his position, dropping to eighth. Even though Rio Haryanto had a damaged front wing, he was defending well and kept GP2 leader Vandoorne on a close distance until the very end, earning his second GP2 win. Behind the two was Nobuharu Matsushita, Sirotkin and Evans in top five. Pierre Gasly was sixth in front of Jordan King, Markelov, Rossi and Visoiu. Alex Lynn scored a bittersweet fastest lap, finishing 21st. Detailed results can be seen here: